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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Royal Anthem Series: XXII Great Britain

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional monarchy located on the British Isles off the northern coast of Europe. At one point the U.K. was the most powerful country in the world with the British Empire ruling over roughly a quarter of the entire earth's surface and population. The reigning monarch is HM Queen Elizabeth II. The national anthem of Great Britain is "God Save the Queen". This is also the royal anthem of various Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia, Belize, the Bahamas, Jamaica and is one of the two national anthems of New Zealand. It has proven to be a very popular song and tune in monarchies around the world.

2 comments:

I believe that there was an anthem used (perhaps unofficially) during the days of the Grand Duchy of Finland, sung to the tune of God Save the Queen. The Finnish song was entitled "Long live our dear, merciful Duke (ie. the Tsar)."

I wouldn't be surprised, it was a very popular piece of music. Even in the United States the tune was copied for a famous patriotic song. The Germans used the tune for "Heil Kaiser Dir" and the Austrians used it for "Gott Erhalte Unser Kaiser". The Russians adapted it with a different tune for "God Save the Czar" and even little Liechtenstein uses the same tune for their national anthem.